Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1959

F2 tornado, Bexar County, Texas, May 10, 1959

This F2 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Bexar County on May 10, 1959, touching down at 5:00 PM GMT-5 and reaching 33 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500 to $5,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F2
Date
May 10, 1959
Touchdown
5:00 PM GMT-5 (22:00 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
33 yards (30 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500 to $5,000
County
Bexar County
Touchdown point
29.270, -98.330
Record number
210

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

San Antonio Intl, TX (KSAT), 12:00Z

10.0 hours before the tornado, 30 km from the path. May 10, 1959.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, San Antonio Intl, TX at 12:00Z on 1959-05-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 701 joules per kilogram, CIN -327, lifted condensation level 643 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, San Antonio Intl, TX at 12:00Z on 1959-05-10The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 98 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
701 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-327 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1316 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
643 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
98 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
206 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

San Antonio Intl, TX (KSAT), 00:00Z

2.0 hours after it, 30 km from the path. May 11, 1959.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, San Antonio Intl, TX at 00:00Z on 1959-05-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1533 joules per kilogram, CIN -68, lifted condensation level 1335 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, San Antonio Intl, TX at 00:00Z on 1959-05-11The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 120 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1533 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-68 J/kg
Surface CAPE
710 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1335 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
120 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
133 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
5.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

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The other tornadoes of May 10, 1959

24 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 101:10 AM GMT-5F1Monroe, IL3.650$5,000 to $50,000
May 102:00 PM GMT-5F4Guthrie, IA41.14001$500,000 to $5 million
May 103:20 PM GMT-5F1Harvey, KS2.510$500 to $5,000
May 103:30 PM GMT-5F2Montgomery, IA1.0200$500 to $5,000
May 104:00 PM GMT-5F1Taylor, TX4.1100$500 to $5,000
May 104:00 PM GMT-5F2Seminole, OK2.0300$500 to $5,000
May 104:15 PM GMT-5F1Taylor, TX4.7150$5,000 to $50,000
May 104:20 PM GMT-5F3Travis, TX11.0667$50,000 to $500,000
May 104:50 PM GMT-5F0Young, TX0.110
May 105:00 PM GMT-5F2Nodaway, MO0.217$5,000 to $50,000
May 105:30 PM GMT-5F2McMullen, TX13.8150$5,000 to $50,000
May 105:45 PM GMT-5F2Franklin, IA6.5300$5,000 to $50,000
May 106:00 PM GMT-5F1Polk, IA1.050$500 to $5,000
May 106:00 PM GMT-5F1Callahan, TX0.367$500 to $5,000
May 106:45 PM GMT-5F2Burleson, TX22.210$500 to $5,000
May 106:53 PM GMT-5F2Polk, IA0.350$500 to $5,000
May 107:10 PM GMT-5F2Sequoyah, OK1.5501$500 to $5,000
May 107:20 PM GMT-5F2Live Oak, TX4.9250$5,000 to $50,000
May 107:25 PM GMT-5F2Live Oak, TX4.3167$5,000 to $50,000
May 107:30 PM GMT-5F0Live Oak, TX0.110
May 108:00 PM GMT-5F3Robertson, TX15.83337$500 to $5,000
May 108:20 PM GMT-5F1Columbia, WI2.233$500 to $5,000
May 108:30 PM GMT-5F1Navarro, TX0.110under $50
May 109:50 PM GMT-5F2Brown, WI4.3333$500,000 to $5 million

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.